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China Detains Asian American Professor

This is an undated file picture of Li Shaomin, an American business professor who has been detained by China. AP Photo.

Second scholar with U.S. ties held in last six weeks

By Joe McDonald/AP

With unease, Liu Yingli has followed the case of Gao Zhan, the political scientist at American University in Washington who was detained in China. She says that like Gao, her husband, Li Shaomin, is missing.

“It’s scary. Who else would want to go to that part of the world? You go there, you disappear,” she said. “I somehow kind of feel lucky that I didn’t go with him that night, otherwise I probably would have disappeared.”

Li, 44, who teaches at City University of Hong Kong, was detained Feb. 25 after crossing the border into China to visit a friend, said his wife, Liu. She said Chinese authorities have not said why or where he is being held.

“I cannot figure out any reason,” Liu said by telephone from Hong Kong. “I truly believe that he did nothing wrong.”

China’s Foreign Ministry and security officials in Beijing and Shenzhen, the southern border city where Li was detained, refused to comment.

Li, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained two weeks after Gao, the political scientist at American University in Washington who has been accused of spying. Gao, a Chinese citizen, was detained Feb. 11. Her family has denied the espionage accusation.

Liu said that after looking for him in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, she reported her husband’s disappearance to the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong. She said the consulate told her Chinese authorities had detained him.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed that Chinese authorities reported an American detained in late February. It declined to confirm his identity or give other information, citing U.S. privacy laws.

An embassy spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said a diplomat had visited the American and was in regular contact with his family.

Li moved to the United States in 1982. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University in 1988 and has taught at Beijing University, according to his home page on the Web site for City University. It says he has worked as a United Nations adviser to the Chinese government.

Liu said her husband had traveled frequently to mainland China without incident.

“He gives talks. He does his research. He gives training programs. He’s often coming in and out of China,” she said.

Li’s father, Li Honglin, was a prominent liberal scholar detained for 10 months in 1989 after he signed a petition supporting pro-democracy protesters, Liu said. She said the elder Li, 76, was an adviser to the late Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, and now lives with the couple in Hong Kong.

However, Liu said she didn’t believe her husband’s detention had anything to do with his father.

Gao’s case caused a diplomatic uproar because Chinese authorities also held her 5-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, for 26 days without informing the American Embassy, as required by treaty. Gao’s son, Andrew, and her husband, who also was detained, were later allowed to return to the United States. The family was picked up at Beijing’s airport as they were ending a visit to China.

The United States has appealed for Gao’s release on humanitarian grounds and officially protested the treatment of her son.